Cognex Corp (CGNX) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Cognex First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Nathan McCurren, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

您好，歡迎來到康耐視 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意正在錄製此會議。我現在將會議轉交給你的主持人，投資者關係主管 Nathan McCurren。你可以開始了。

Thank you, Shmouli. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. With me on today's call are Rob Willett, Cognex' President and CEO; and Paul Todgham, our CFO. Our results were released earlier today. The press release and quarterly report on Form 10-Q are available on the Investor Relations section of our website.

謝謝你，Shmouli。大家，早安。感謝您加入我們。和我一起參加今天電話會議的有康耐視總裁兼首席執行官 Rob Willett；和我們的首席財務官 Paul Todgham。我們的結果今天早些時候發布。有關 10-Q 表格的新聞稿和季度報告可在我們網站的投資者關係部分獲取。

Both the press release and our call today will reference non-GAAP measures. You can see a reconciliation of certain items from GAAP to non-GAAP in Exhibit 2 of the press release. Any forward-looking statements we made in the press release or any that we may make during this call are based upon information that we believe to be true as of today.

新聞稿和我們今天的電話會議都將參考非 GAAP 措施。您可以在新聞稿的附件 2 中看到某些項目從 GAAP 到非 GAAP 的調節。我們在新聞稿中做出的任何前瞻性陳述或我們在本次電話會議期間可能做出的任何前瞻性陳述均基於我們認為截至今天是真實的信息。

Our actual results may differ materially from our projections due to the risks and uncertainties that are described in our SEC filings, including our most recent Form 10-K and on our Form 10-Q filed this morning for Q1. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rob.

由於我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中描述的風險和不確定性，包括我們最近的 10-K 表格和今天上午為第一季度提交的 10-Q 表格，我們的實際結果可能與我們的預測存在重大差異。有了這個，我會把電話轉給 Rob。

Thanks, Nathan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. As anticipated, we had a challenging first quarter of 2023. Revenue from our largest e-commerce customers remained low, and we continue to see cautious investment by customers across many of our end markets. More projects in our sales funnel are being delayed by spending cuts and additional levels of executive approval at our customers amid concerns about near-term demand. You can see this in macro-leading indicators that remain muted.

謝謝，內森。大家早上好，感謝您加入我們。正如預期的那樣，我們在 2023 年第一季度遇到了挑戰。我們最大的電子商務客戶的收入仍然很低，我們繼續看到客戶在我們許多終端市場的謹慎投資。由於對近期需求的擔憂，我們銷售漏斗中的更多項目因支出削減和客戶的額外行政批准而被推遲。您可以在保持靜音的宏觀領先指標中看到這一點。

Since our last call, new orders and manufacturing PMI have decreased slightly in our largest regions, partially offset by an improvement in China compared to the January lows. We've seen slow periods like this before, and we've come out of them delivering meaningful growth. Our business is [shorter] cycle and not as backlog driven, as many of our peers, so it tends to inflect more quickly.

自我們上次電話會議以來，我們最大地區的新訂單和製造業 PMI 略有下降，部分被中國較 1 月低點的改善所抵消。我們以前見過這樣的緩慢時期，我們已經擺脫了這些時期，實現了有意義的增長。我們的業務週期 [較短]，不像許多同行那樣受積壓驅動，因此它往往會更快地發生變化。

Additionally, we are comparing to an exceptionally strong Q1 of 2022, highlighted by large logistics projects and backlog catch-up as the supply environment improved.

此外，我們正在與異常強勁的 2022 年第一季度進行比較，隨著供應環境的改善，大型物流項目和積壓追趕突出顯示。

Gross margin of 71% in Q1 was in line with our expectations, yet still below our mid-70% long-term target due to the elevated prices we paid to buy scarce components and replenish inventory through brokers. We believe that pressure is behind us going forward.

第一季度 71% 的毛利率符合我們的預期，但仍低於我們 70% 的中期長期目標，原因是我們為購買稀缺組件和通過經紀人補充庫存而支付的高價。我們相信壓力是我們前進的背後。

Before I go into further commentary on the business and outlook for Q2, I'd like to turn the call over to Paul to walk through more of the results.

在我進一步評論第二季度的業務和前景之前，我想把電話轉給保羅，讓他了解更多結果。

Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everyone. First quarter revenue was $201 million, which was slightly above the high end of our guidance range, yet a meaningful step down year-on-year. In addition to the drivers that Rob touched on, foreign currency translation reduced revenue by $8 million or 3% year-on-year on a reported basis.

謝謝羅布，大家早上好。第一季度收入為 2.01 億美元，略高於我們指導範圍的上限，但同比下降幅度很大。除了 Rob 提到的驅動因素外，外幣換算使收入減少了 800 萬美元，據報告同比減少 3%。

Let's now go into more detail about what we are seeing in our end markets in the first quarter. Turning first to automotive, our largest end market in 2022. The ongoing transition to electric vehicles is driving multiyear investments, and we continue to develop strong customer relationships worldwide with an industry-leading offering for EV battery inspection. Even so, automotive spending in the first quarter was tepid, driven by more cautious investment from our customers as they see demand for their products soften. EV battery revenue can be lumpy and large project timing can be uncertain. We had a very strong Q1 of 2022 that resulted in a tough compare this quarter, but we continue to expect our EV battery revenue to grow substantially in 2023.

現在讓我們更詳細地了解第一季度我們在終端市場上看到的情況。首先轉向汽車，這是我們 2022 年最大的終端市場。向電動汽車的持續過渡正在推動多年投資，我們將繼續通過行業領先的 EV 電池檢測產品在全球範圍內發展強大的客戶關係。即便如此，第一季度的汽車支出不溫不火，這是由於我們的客戶看到對其產品的需求疲軟，因此投資更加謹慎。 EV 電池收入可能不穩定，大型項目時間可能不確定。我們在 2022 年第一季度表現非常強勁，導致本季度比較艱難，但我們繼續預計我們的 EV 電池收入將在 2023 年大幅增長。

Moving next to logistics. Declines at a few of our largest e-commerce customers accounted for over half of our total company year-on-year revenue decline. Outside of these few large customers, we saw growth in the remainder of our logistics business. Logistics is still in the early innings of adopting machine vision. Most companies rely heavily on labor and very few warehouses globally are realizing the full potential of automation. E-commerce and omnichannel players beyond our largest e-commerce customers are investing as they strive to automate more, and we continue to make progress in parcel and post.

搬到物流旁邊。我們一些最大的電子商務客戶的收入下降占我們公司總收入同比下降的一半以上。除了這幾個大客戶之外，我們還看到了其他物流業務的增長。物流仍處於採用機器視覺的早期階段。大多數公司嚴重依賴勞動力，全球很少有倉庫充分發揮自動化的潛力。我們最大的電子商務客戶之外的電子商務和全渠道參與者正在投資，因為他們努力實現更多自動化，我們在包裹和郵政方面繼續取得進展。

These customers are important for us going forward. While a few of our largest e-commerce customers have accounted for over half of our logistics revenue in the past several years, these customers represent less than 5% of global warehouse space. So the remainder of the logistics market, which is also much less automated, remains a significant growth opportunity for us over the long term.

這些客戶對我們的未來很重要。雖然我們一些最大的電子商務客戶在過去幾年中占我們物流收入的一半以上，但這些客戶只佔全球倉庫空間的不到 5%。因此，物流市場的其餘部分，自動化程度也低得多，從長遠來看，對我們來說仍然是一個重要的增長機會。

Shifting to consumer electronics. A significant portion of our consumer electronics business is related to premium segment of smartphones and other smart devices. As many of you know, smartphone shipments were down in 2022 and expected to be down again in 2023, albeit less significantly in the premium segment. This weakened demand has led to conservative capital spending. Rob will go into more detail on what we expect from this end market going forward.

轉向消費電子產品。我們消費電子業務的很大一部分與智能手機和其他智能設備的高端市場相關。正如你們許多人所知，2022 年智能手機出貨量下降，預計 2023 年將再次下降，儘管高端市場的下降幅度較小。這種疲軟的需求導致保守的資本支出。 Rob 將更詳細地介紹我們對這個終端市場未來的期望。

In other smaller end markets that we serve, revenue declined year-on-year, primarily due to the softer macro conditions compared to the strong business environment we were still seeing in the first quarter of 2022.

在我們服務的其他較小的終端市場，收入同比下降，這主要是由於與我們在 2022 年第一季度仍然看到的強勁商業環境相比，宏觀環境更為疲軟。

Looking at the change in revenue for Q1 on a geographic basis, Europe was our best-performing region with flat revenue growth year-on-year on a constant currency basis or slightly down on a reported basis. Declines from our largest e-commerce customers were offset by growth in automotive and the remainder of our logistics customers.

從地域上看第一季度的收入變化，歐洲是我們表現最好的地區，按固定匯率計算，歐洲收入同比增長持平或略有下降。我們最大的電子商務客戶的下降被汽車和其他物流客戶的增長所抵消。

The Americas and Asia were our weakest performing regions. Revenue in the Americas was down 36%, driven by the concentration of large e-commerce customers. Revenue in Asia was down 35% or 28% on a constant currency basis. This was consistent across both China and the remainder of Asia with softness across the end markets, yet most pronounced in consumer electronics, which was also lapping a strong first quarter of 2022. In China, we had slowness in the beginning of the first quarter, but momentum began to pick up in March and April.

美洲和亞洲是我們表現最差的地區。受大型電子商務客戶集中的推動，美洲的收入下降了 36%。按固定匯率計算，亞洲的收入下降了 35% 或 28%。這在中國和亞洲其他地區都是一致的，終端市場疲軟，但在消費電子產品中最為明顯，消費電子產品在 2022 年第一季度也表現強勁。在中國，我們在第一季度初表現緩慢，但勢頭在 3 月和 4 月開始回升。

Turning now to margins. Gross margin was 71% in Q1. Broker buy activity continued to pressure gross margin below our mid-70% long-term target. The flow-through of this higher cost inventory was an approximately 300 basis point impact in the first quarter which was an improvement compared to the approximately 500 basis point impact in Q4. We have not made significant broker buys since early Q4. So this higher priced inventory has nearly worked its way through the P&L.

現在轉向利潤率。第一季度的毛利率為 71%。經紀商買入活動繼續壓低毛利率，使其低於我們 70% 的中期長期目標。這一較高成本庫存的流轉在第一季度產生了約 300 個基點的影響，與第四季度約 500 個基點的影響相比有所改善。自第四季度初以來，我們沒有進行過大量的經紀人購買。因此，這種價格較高的庫存幾乎已經完成了損益表。

Operating expenses increased by approximately $5 million or 4% year-on-year. The majority of this was driven by investment in our emerging customer initiative. The remainder was primarily driven by personnel-related costs, including a typical annual increase in employee compensation, partially offset by the favorable impact of currency exchange rates. Operating margin of 11% was below both Q1 of 2022 and our 30% long-term target due primarily to operating deleverage from softer revenue. The effective tax rate, excluding discrete tax items, was 16% in both Q1 of 2023 and 2022. Reported earnings were $0.15 per share in Q1, non-GAAP earnings per share were $0.13, excluding discrete tax adjustments.

經營費用同比增加約 500 萬美元或 4%。其中大部分是由對我們新興客戶計劃的投資推動的。其餘部分主要由與人員相關的成本驅動，包括員工薪酬的典型年度增長，部分被貨幣匯率的有利影響所抵消。 11% 的營業利潤率低於 2022 年第一季度和我們 30% 的長期目標，這主要是由於收入疲軟導致經營去槓桿化。 2023 年第一季度和 2022 年第一季度的有效稅率（不包括離散稅項）均為 16%。報告的第一季度每股收益為 0.15 美元，非 GAAP 每股收益為 0.13 美元，不包括離散稅收調整。

Turning to the balance sheet. Cognex continues to have a strong cash position with $844 million in cash and investments and no debt. Cash flows in Q1 reflected lower net income level, and we returned $36 million to shareholders in the form of stock buybacks and dividends. Now I'll turn it back over to Rob.

轉向資產負債表。康耐視繼續保持強勁的現金狀況，擁有 8.44 億美元的現金和投資，並且沒有債務。第一季度的現金流反映出較低的淨收入水平，我們以股票回購和股息的形式向股東返還了 3600 萬美元。現在我將把它轉回給 Rob。

Thanks Paul. As our history demonstrates, Cognex can experience periods of softness in between periods of robust growth. We're excited about the growth drivers that we expect to materialize over the next few years, driven by both secular and regulatory tailwinds. In the U.S. alone, companies have committed more than $200 billion to manufacturing projects since Congress passed the CHIPS Act and the IRA, a 5x increase over what was announced last year prior to the passage of these subsidies.

謝謝保羅。正如我們的歷史所證明的那樣，康耐視可以在強勁增長期之間經歷疲軟期。在長期和監管順風的推動下，我們對未來幾年有望實現的增長動力感到興奮。自國會通過 CHIPS 法案和 IRA 以來，僅在美國，公司就已承諾向製造項目投入超過 2000 億美元，比去年通過這些補貼之前宣布的數額增加了 5 倍。

Cleantech and semiconductor investments are beginning to ramp up now. We expect these will be medium to long-term growth drivers for Cognex as manufacturers typically implement machine vision in the later stages of these capital projects. Significant investment is also happening beyond the United States. In the first quarter, I spent 3 weeks in Asia, visiting Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, India and Vietnam. My time with customers, suppliers and Cognoids confirmed that manufacturing investment is increasing in these countries, and there is a significant opportunity for further automation enabled by machine vision across both factory automation and logistics.

清潔技術和半導體投資現在開始增加。我們預計這些將成為康耐視的中長期增長動力，因為製造商通常會在這些資本項目的後期實施機器視覺。美國以外的地區也進行了大量投資。第一季度，我在亞洲度過了三個星期，訪問了韓國、馬來西亞、新加坡、印度和越南。我與客戶、供應商和 Cognoids 接觸的時間證實，這些國家的製造業投資正在增加，並且機器視覺在工廠自動化和物流領域實現進一步自動化的重大機會。

In India, investments are being made in electronics to support large customers diversifying their manufacturing outside of China. One manufacturing facility I visited employs 25,000 people. They expect to double their workforce over the next few quarters. A large portion of these people perform manual visual inspection. This is just one example where Cognex products can help automate manual processes and drive improved process efficiency, product quality and service levels for our customers.

在印度，正在對電子產品進行投資，以支持大客戶在中國以外的地區實現製造多元化。我參觀過的一家製造工廠擁有 25,000 名員工。他們希望在未來幾個季度內將員工人數增加一倍。這些人中的很大一部分執行手動目視檢查。這只是康耐視產品可以幫助自動化手動流程並為我們的客戶提高流程效率、產品質量和服務水平的一個例子。

My time with executives from EV battery manufacturers reinforced this as an important strategic growth priority for us. EV battery manufacturers are responding favorably to our industry-leading technology that combines the computational lighting products we acquired with SAC and our deep learning vision software. As EV battery investments accelerate over the next several years, we are well positioned to capture a substantial share of the machine vision growth.

我與電動汽車電池製造商高管的相處時間強化了這一點，將其作為我們重要的戰略增長重點。 EV 電池製造商對我們行業領先的技術反應良好，該技術將我們收購的計算照明產品與 SAC 和我們的深度學習視覺軟件相結合。隨著未來幾年電動汽車電池投資的加速，我們有能力在機器視覺增長中佔據很大份額。

I also spent time with Cognex' own contract manufacturers. Both our long-term partner and our new supplier are among the 10 largest contract manufacturers in the world. We are on track at our second contract manufacturer to ramp up production across many of our largest unit volume products by the end of Q2. Deepening relationships and diversifying our supply is helping us professionalize and scale our operations.

我還花時間與康耐視自己的合同製造商打交道。我們的長期合作夥伴和我們的新供應商都是世界前 10 大合同製造商之一。我們的第二家合同製造商有望在第二季度末提高我們許多最大單位體積產品的產量。深化關係和多樣化我們的供應正在幫助我們專業化和擴大我們的業務。

Let's shift to an update on product innovation. Our reorganization in 2020 led to a product development process centered on common products and platforms. This has teed us up for more efficient and rapid product launches with a focus on ease of implementation and ease of use. The In-Sight 3800 is a great example of this. Just 12 months after launching the In-Sight 2800, our first edge learning-enabled vision system, we launched a second generation that offers similar capabilities at more than twice the processing speed. The In-Sight 3800 is the fastest embedded smart camera in the market today. It can perform tasks such as automated inspection on high-speed production line in as little as 10 milliseconds, which is less than 1/3 the time of the blink of an eye. This accommodates the fastest line speeds to maximize throughput while delivering the high accuracy that customers have come to expect from our In-Sight product line.

讓我們轉向產品創新的更新。我們在 2020 年的重組導致了以通用產品和平台為中心的產品開發流程。這使我們能夠更高效、更快速地發布產品，重點是易於實施和易於使用。 In-Sight 3800 就是一個很好的例子。在推出我們首款支持邊緣學習的視覺系統 In-Sight 2800 僅 12 個月後，我們推出了第二代產品，它以兩倍以上的處理速度提供類似的功能。 In-Sight 3800 是當今市場上速度最快的嵌入式智能相機。可在短短10毫秒內完成高速生產線上的自動化檢測等任務，不到眨眼時間的1/3。這適應了最快的生產線速度以最大限度地提高吞吐量，同時提供客戶對我們的 In-Sight 產品線所期望的高精度。

Cognex edge learning technology offers ease of use that enables customers to independently and quickly set up the In-Sight 3800 to solve a wide range of manufacturing applications. After launching this product at the beginning of April, we're getting very positive responses from customers, and we've already seen meaningful orders.

康耐視邊緣學習技術易於使用，使客戶能夠獨立快速地設置 In-Sight 3800 來解決廣泛的製造應用。在 4 月初推出該產品後，我們得到了客戶非常積極的回應，我們已經看到了有意義的訂單。

In addition to new platforms, our new approach to innovation is resulting in the launch of many platform extensions. For example, the DataMan 282 was launched in March, extends the Cognex DataMan 280 series of fixed-mount barcode readers to increase throughput and improve worker safety in manufacturing and logistics. The DataMan 282 provides accurate hands-free reading of complex barcodes, including difficult-to-read codes on curved shiny metal surfaces such as EV components, consumer electronics and medical devices.

除了新平台之外，我們的新創新方法還促成了許多平台擴展的推出。例如，DataMan 282 於 3 月推出，擴展了康耐視 DataMan 280 系列固定式讀碼器，以提高吞吐量並改善製造和物流中工人的安全。 DataMan 282 無需手持即可準確讀取複雜條碼，包括彎曲閃亮金屬表面上難以讀取的代碼，例如 EV 組件、消費電子產品和醫療設備。

Expanding our product portfolio with easy-to-use products is positioning us well to broaden our customer base. With our emerging customer initiative, we're investing to address smaller or less technically sophisticated customers who are looking for reliable, high-performance automation solutions that are easy to implement and use. We've made strong progress on this initiative in Q1 and are encouraged by the KPIs we received for our initial pilots, representing up to 10x as many customers as our current customer base, we're excited about the potential contributions these customers can make towards our target long-term growth.

通過易於使用的產品擴展我們的產品組合使我們能夠很好地擴大我們的客戶群。通過我們的新興客戶計劃，我們正在投資以滿足規模較小或技術不太成熟的客戶，這些客戶正在尋找易於實施和使用的可靠、高性能的自動化解決方案。我們在第一季度的這項計劃上取得了長足的進步，我們為最初的試點收到的 KPI 感到鼓舞，代表的客戶數量是我們當前客戶群的 10 倍，我們很高興這些客戶可以為實現這一目標做出潛在貢獻我們的目標是長期增長。

Turning now to our outlook. As we look to the remainder of 2023, there is considerable uncertainty about the potential operating environment. As many of you know, revenue from consumer electronics has an annual cadence that we typically talk about in our Q1 call. For 2023, we believe our customers will not make heavy investments in new capabilities. As a result, we expect annual revenue from consumer electronics will be modestly lower this year after growing in the mid-teens on a constant currency basis in 2022.

現在轉向我們的展望。展望 2023 年剩餘時間，潛在的運營環境存在相當大的不確定性。正如你們中的許多人所知，消費電子產品的收入有一個年度節奏，我們通常在第一季度電話會議中談論這一點。對於 2023 年，我們相信我們的客戶不會對新功能進行大量投資。因此，我們預計消費電子產品的年收入在 2022 年按固定匯率計算增長了 15% 左右後，今年將略有下降。

Overall, in the second quarter, we expect revenue of between $225 million and $245 million. This step up from the first quarter is relatively in line with our typical Q1 to Q2 seasonality. We expect gross margin in the mid-70% range, in line with our long-term margin target as we move beyond the elevated costs from premium broker buys and expect a more favorable revenue mix. Operating expenses are expected to increase by low single digits on a sequential basis as investments in the company's emerging customer initiatives will be partially offset by lower stock-based compensation.

總體而言，我們預計第二季度的收入將在 2.25 億美元至 2.45 億美元之間。從第一季度開始的這一增長相對符合我們典型的第一季度至第二季度的季節性。我們預計毛利率在 70% 左右，這與我們的長期利潤率目標一致，因為我們已經擺脫了購買優質經紀商帶來的高成本，並預計會有更有利的收入組合。由於對公司新興客戶計劃的投資將被較低的股票薪酬部分抵消，預計營業費用將連續以低個位數增長。

Lastly, I remain confident in our team and their ability to execute. Cognoids tend to be long-term minded, so morale and retention remains strong as we look ahead at our growth opportunities. Voluntary attrition of our employees remains about half that of our peers. Additionally, with the layoffs and low morale as some of our peers in the big tech companies, we are recruiting some exceptional talent. While this quarter did not represent the performance that we aim for, we have the right ingredients in place to get back to our long-term growth model.

最後，我對我們的團隊及其執行能力充滿信心。 Cognoids 往往有長遠的眼光，因此在我們展望未來的增長機會時，士氣和保留率仍然很高。我們員工的自願離職率仍然是同行的一半左右。此外，由於一些大型科技公司的同行裁員和士氣低落，我們正在招聘一些傑出的人才。雖然本季度並不代表我們的目標業績，但我們已經具備了恢復長期增長模式的正確要素。

Now we will open the call up for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

現在我們將公開提問。接線員，請繼續。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Joe Giordano with TD Cowen.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Joe Giordano 與 TD Cowen 的對話。

So you mentioned that the logistics decline is from large customers and that the smaller customers were growth -- were still growing. And I know we've heard commentary from a lot of companies that those smaller players who are investing in logistics expect to kind of keep spending through a potential recession? I guess my question is, do you believe that because we're not really feeling necessarily the major impacts of a recession yet. Once we start feeling that, do you think that these customers will still continue to spend, that they saying that now?

所以你提到物流下降來自大客戶，而小客戶正在增長 - 仍在增長。而且我知道我們已經聽到很多公司的評論，那些投資於物流的小公司希望在潛在的經濟衰退期間保持支出？我想我的問題是，你相信嗎，因為我們還沒有真正感受到經濟衰退的重大影響。一旦我們開始有這種感覺，您認為這些客戶還會繼續消費嗎？他們現在這麼說嗎？

I think if we strip out our very small number of large e-commerce customers, what we're seeing is that the rest of our customers continue to grow. So that's the good news. But I also don't think that they are completely immune to the macro conditions that we're all seeing. So I visited some of those over the first quarter. I'm hearing also pressures on costs generally within those companies too and more scrutiny of capital spend. So we see this as a great growth opportunity for us, the base logistics business. It's growing, and we expect it to go on growing nicely, but it's not immune to pressure would be my take on it.

我認為，如果我們剔除極少數大型電子商務客戶，我們看到的是其餘客戶繼續增長。這是個好消息。但我也不認為他們完全不受我們所看到的宏觀條件的影響。所以我在第一季度訪問了其中一些。我還聽說這些公司內部普遍存在成本壓力，並且對資本支出進行了更多審查。因此，我們認為這對我們基地物流業務來說是一個巨大的增長機會。它正在增長，我們希望它能繼續保持良好的增長，但它不能免受壓力，這是我對它的看法。

Yes, that's fair. When you look at the sequential uptick in the 2Q here, would you say that's reflective of end demand? Or is this kind of a delivery of backlog that maybe had been -- maybe past due or delayed a little bit?

是的，這很公平。當你在這裡查看第二季度的連續上升時，你會說這反映了最終需求嗎？還是這種積壓的交付可能已經 - 可能逾期或延遲了一點？

Yes. Joe, this is Paul. I think the biggest driver is just sort of seasonality in our consumer electronics business. That's the biggest piece. We did call out that China is improving given where China started the year. So that's another factor. Otherwise, overall demand is weak, as Rob sort of mentioned, and no real further commentary on that right now, I would say.

是的。喬，這是保羅。我認為最大的驅動因素只是我們消費電子業務的季節性。那是最大的一塊。我們確實指出，鑑於中國今年的開局情況，中國正在改善。所以這是另一個因素。否則，正如 Rob 提到的那樣，總體需求疲軟，我會說，目前還沒有真正的進一步評論。

And just sneaking one last question more at high level. You're hearing a lot of talk about RFID more recently. And if there's a -- what does that mean for you if there's a more protracted move from barcode toward RFID? Or how do you even think about that progression? Is that an area that you are interested in or think about?

只是在高層次上偷偷提出最後一個問題。您最近聽到了很多關於 RFID 的討論。如果有 - 如果從條形碼轉向 RFID 的時間更長，這對您意味著什麼？或者您如何看待這種進展？這是您感興趣或考慮的領域嗎？

Yes. So been in this industry for about 25 years, and we've certainly seen RFID trials. We see them from time to time over a long period, we've seen them at some major customers of ours. And generally, they haven't got great traction because RFID is an expensive technology, and it doesn't work in certain environments. I think we will probably see some big quite high-profile RFID trials going on at a large parcel delivery company. So I think that's what's perhaps creating some noise. What I would say is I don't see RFID and machine vision competing significantly with one another. I think they just offer very different attributes. Machine vision is very powerful for -- over a whole range of applications. And RFID, I think, is a more specific technology around very high value, often smaller -- slower-moving assets. So I observed some of that, but I don't see it taking any business from us currently nor have I over a long period, nor do I really expect to in future periods.

是的。在這個行業工作了大約 25 年，我們當然看到了 RFID 試驗。我們在很長一段時間內不時看到它們，我們已經在我們的一些主要客戶身上看到它們。通常，它們沒有太大的吸引力，因為 RFID 是一項昂貴的技術，而且它在某些環境中不起作用。我認為我們可能會看到大型包裹遞送公司正在進行一些非常引人注目的大型 RFID 試驗。所以我認為這可能是造成一些噪音的原因。我要說的是，我認為 RFID 和機器視覺之間沒有明顯的競爭。我認為它們只是提供了非常不同的屬性。機器視覺非常強大——在整個應用範圍內。我認為，RFID 是一種更具體的技術，圍繞著非常高的價值，通常是較小的 - 移動速度較慢的資產。所以我觀察到了其中的一些，但我不認為它目前和我在很長一段時間內都沒有從我們這裡拿走任何業務，我也不希望在未來一段時間內這樣做。

Our next question comes from the line of Guy Hardwick with Credit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Guy Hardwick。

Joe kind of asked my main question. So it does seem that the return to kind of normal seasonality, would you also say that's going to be the -- from what you can see from now that the second half will also reflect normal seasonality?

喬問了我的主要問題。所以看起來確實恢復了正常的季節性，你是否也說這將是 - 從你現在可以看到的下半年也將反映正常的季節性？

I think we don't really give guidance for the second half, but there's obviously quite a lot of noise we're going to see when we compare to prior year. We had -- as you and many of you know, we had logistics -- big logistics customers really tapped their brakes as we went in -- or put the brakes on firmly as we went into the second half of last year. And we also had a fire in our main contract manufacturer's warehouse, which certainly caused some distortion. So we're going to get much easier compares as we go into the second half of the year. In terms of seasonality, hard to call, but I think we -- history tells us we can expect Q2 and 3 to be large consumer electronics quarter for us. And in Q4, it's very hard to call that as we go out further. And it really depends on the overall environment, we can see a lot of year-end spending in different markets. We may have a better sense of how logistics is looking as we get into Q4, whether there is -- as we can see some large year-end projects and committed coming through in our bookings. But that's too hard to call at this point.

我認為我們並沒有真正為下半年提供指導，但與去年相比，我們顯然會看到很多噪音。我們有——正如你們和你們中的許多人所知，我們有物流——當我們進入時，大型物流客戶真的踩下了剎車——或者在我們進入去年下半年時堅定地踩下了剎車。我們的主要合同製造商的倉庫也發生了火災，這肯定造成了一些失真。因此，隨著我們進入今年下半年，我們將變得更容易進行比較。就季節性而言，很難預測，但我認為我們——歷史告訴我們，我們可以預期第二季度和第三季度對我們來說將是大型消費電子產品季度。在第四季度，隨著我們走得更遠，很難稱之為。這真的取決於整體環境，我們可以看到不同市場有很多年終支出。當我們進入第四季度時，我們可能會更好地了解物流的情況，是否有——因為我們可以看到一些大型年終項目並承諾在我們的預訂中完成。但在這一點上，這太難了。

And I would just add, I think the sell-side guy -- I think the sell side understands this really well, but for others listening. I think our year-over-year comparisons in 2023 are much more of a function of the 2022 base than they are our business trajectory. I think kind of the seasonality is, it does look sort of relatively normal this year, especially compared to last year.

我只想補充一點，我認為賣方 - 我認為賣方非常了解這一點，但對於其他人來說。我認為我們在 2023 年的同比比較更多是基於 2022 年的功能，而不是我們的業務軌跡。我認為有點季節性，今年看起來確實相對正常，尤其是與去年相比。

And sorry, Paul, just one more in terms of the operating expense guidance, it does seem to benefit from lower stock option expensing. But if you have to exclude stock option expensing compare what you're projecting for Q2 versus Q2 last year, what would it be in terms of growth?

抱歉，保羅，就運營費用指導而言，還有一個，它似乎確實受益於較低的股票期權費用。但是，如果您必須排除股票期權費用，請比較您對第二季度和去年第二季度的預測，在增長方面會是什麼？

It's mostly -- the most growth, I'd say, excluding stock option, would be driven by the emerging customer initiatives that we've made. We are carrying some additional headcount beyond that, but really, the bulk of the headcount has been investment for that initiative. And then we do have merit and promotions and such sort of annual comp increases that you lap in any year-over-year comparison. So those are probably the biggest factors. I don't know if this will hold in Q2, but certainly in Q1, travel was up a little bit versus a year ago, which we do is a very good thing that we're able with COVID restrictions basically entirely behind us, we're able to pay more customer visits and deepen those relationships, which we know pay off over time. But those would be the things I would call out.

這主要是 - 我想說的最大增長，不包括股票期權，將由我們制定的新興客戶計劃推動。除此之外，我們還有一些額外的員工人數，但實際上，大部分員工都是對該計劃的投資。然後我們確實有功績和晉升，以及你在任何年度比較中都表現出色的年度薪酬增長。所以這些可能是最大的因素。我不知道這是否會在第二季度持續，但肯定在第一季度，旅行與一年前相比有所增加，我們這樣做是一件非常好的事情，我們能夠基本上完全擺脫 COVID 限制，我們'能夠支付更多的客戶訪問並加深這些關係，我們知道隨著時間的推移會得到回報。但這些將是我要大聲疾呼的事情。

Our next question comes from the line of Thomas Moll with Stephens Inc.

我們的下一個問題來自 Thomas Moll 與 Stephens Inc. 的合作。

I wanted to stay on the topic of the emerging customer initiative. So per the guidance, it looks like the level of investment is up sequentially in the second quarter. I'm just curious, do you have any visibility beyond Q2? Do you expect to continue to layer in incremental investment there? Or does Q2 feel like a full run rate? And then as you think about harvesting the return on this investment, what kind of timeline should we be thinking about in terms of being able to flip from margin dilutive to potentially margin-accretive here?

我想留在新興客戶倡議的話題上。因此，根據指導意見，第二季度的投資水平似乎環比上升。我只是好奇，你對 Q2 之後有什麼能見度嗎？您是否希望繼續在那裡進行增量投資？或者 Q2 感覺像是一個完整的運行率？然後當你考慮收穫這項投資的回報時，我們應該考慮什麼樣的時間表才能從利潤稀釋轉變為潛在的利潤增加？

Tommy, I'll paint the sort of high-level picture on this and give you some thoughts, and then I'll hand it over to Paul for some more detail. But just to get it to a level set, so Cognex traditionally has been very, very successful with the most sophisticated manufacturers of discrete products. And they love our technology, and it's remarkable, very strong relationships, but there's a whole part of the market.

Tommy，我將對此進行高級描述並給你一些想法，然後我會將其交給 Paul 以了解更多細節。但只是為了達到一個水平，所以康耐視傳統上一直非常非常成功地與最先進的分立產品製造商合作。他們喜歡我們的技術，這是非凡的、非常牢固的關係，但有整個市場的一部分。

If we serve 30,000 customers today in the sort of top of that segment, we think there are as many as 300,000 customers further down the pyramid that really can benefit from our technology, but we haven't had the ease of use and ease of implementation with our products that was needed to make those customers absorb our technology and for us to serve them profitably. That's really changed over the last couple of years and probably one of the main things or definitely one of the main things that's changed is edge learning, right?

如果我們今天在該細分市場的頂端為 30,000 名客戶提供服務，我們認為金字塔下方還有多達 300,000 名客戶真正可以從我們的技術中受益，但我們還沒有易於使用和易於實施我們的產品需要讓這些客戶吸收我們的技術，並讓我們為他們提供有利可圖的服務。在過去的幾年裡，這真的發生了變化，可能其中一個主要的變化或者絕對是主要變化之一就是邊緣學習，對吧？

This is products that allow very easy training so we can look at a technology component or a closure on a bottle or all kinds of applications in markets, consumer products would be a good example. And with relatively low scale and low automation capability, we can take machine vision and apply it to customers there. So that's been a real trigger for us. We talked about it at Analyst Day back in September.

這是一種非常容易培訓的產品，因此我們可以查看技術組件或瓶蓋或市場上的各種應用，消費產品就是一個很好的例子。由於規模和自動化能力相對較低，我們可以採用機器視覺並將其應用於那裡的客戶。所以這對我們來說是一個真正的觸發因素。我們在 9 月份的分析師日討論過它。

And we're in a process to build out a sales network in order to reach those customers and develop more and more products so we can go to and sell to them profitably. If this goes well, I could see this being a very long-term initiative where we continue to build out our sales force, and we would see substantial growth over long periods. We're starting it now. So right now, we're building out those capabilities. We're recruiting and training salespeople to go into the field.

我們正在建立一個銷售網絡，以接觸這些客戶並開發越來越多的產品，這樣我們就可以去銷售給他們並從中獲利。如果一切順利，我認為這是一項非常長期的計劃，我們將繼續建立我們的銷售隊伍，並且我們將在長期內看到大幅增長。我們現在開始了。所以現在，我們正在構建這些功能。我們正在招聘和培訓銷售人員進入該領域。

And I think we can expect that to ramp as we move forward. It will ramp as we move through the year. And if all goes well, I would expect it to ramp into next year as well and in subsequent years. And I think we would expect those salespeople to be selling very profitable products, similar to our current gross margin profile and operating margin accretive once they're selling volume in the field.

而且我認為我們可以期望隨著我們的前進而增加。隨著我們度過這一年，它會逐漸增加。如果一切順利，我預計它也將在明年和隨後的幾年中出現。而且我認為我們希望這些銷售人員能夠銷售非常有利可圖的產品，類似於我們目前的毛利率狀況和一旦他們在該領域銷售量就會增加營業利潤率。

Yes. And Tommy, just to add some expense color there. We communicated this in February. We expect this to be a roughly $25 million to $30 million OpEx investment on the full year for 2023. And it is ramping up from Q1 to Q3. And think about it consistently as it's primarily an investment in headcount that's following a campus recruiting cycle in the different geographies we serve.

是的。湯米，只是為了在那裡添加一些費用顏色。我們在二月份就此進行了溝通。我們預計 2023 年全年的運營支出投資約為 2500 萬至 3000 萬美元。並且從第一季度到第三季度呈上升趨勢。並始終如一地考慮它，因為它主要是在我們服務的不同地區的校園招聘週期之後對員工人數的投資。

So Q2 will be up from Q1, and we would expect Q3 to be up from there. So the run rate is going to be a little higher than if you took $25 million to $30 million divided by 4 as we -- given kind of the ramp-up period is sort of thinking about going into future years. And then in terms of the return, as Rob said, we're really excited about this. We're in pilot mode and learning a lot and seeing great initial traction. But we are tempering expectations from a timing perspective.

因此，第二季度將高於第一季度，我們預計第三季度將高於第一季度。因此，如果你將 2500 萬美元到 3000 萬美元除以 4，那麼運行率會略高一些——考慮到某種加速期正在考慮進入未來幾年。然後就回報而言，正如 Rob 所說，我們對此感到非常興奮。我們處於試點模式，學到了很多東西，並看到了巨大的初始牽引力。但我們正在從時間的角度降低預期。

If you just think about hiring folks primarily on a campus recruiting kind of timeline, quite a long training period because they're starting from scratch, unlike most of our salespeople, which we're hiring with several years of experience from competitors or distributors or other participants in our market. And then just the natural ramp-up period of how effective a salesperson is in their first 6 months versus their second 6 months, their second year versus their first year and even their third year versus their second year. So I think we'll have a lot more to share next year on the progress we're making and sort of the results. But I think in the near-term period, we're really in investment, hiring, training and pilot mode right now.

如果你只是考慮主要在校園招聘時間表上招聘人員，那麼培訓時間相當長，因為他們是從頭開始的，不像我們的大多數銷售人員，我們從競爭對手或分銷商那裡招聘具有多年經驗的銷售人員，或者我們市場的其他參與者。然後是銷售人員前 6 個月與後 6 個月、第二年與第一年、甚至第三年與第二年的效率的自然提升期。所以我認為明年我們將有更多關於我們正在取得的進展和結果的分享。但我認為在短期內，我們現在確實處於投資、招聘、培訓和試點模式。

That's all very helpful. I appreciate the insight. And as a follow-up, I wanted to ask about some recent news flow regarding OLED screens and tablets. Noted your commentary on the broader consumer electronics end market looking like a down year for 2023, but maybe not specific to this year, just in general, how big of a commercial opportunity do you see that at?

這一切都非常有幫助。我很欣賞這種洞察力。作為後續，我想問一些關於 OLED 屏幕和平板電腦的最新消息。注意到您對 2023 年更廣泛的消費電子終端市場的評論看起來像是低迷的一年，但也許不是針對今年，總的來說，您認為這有多大的商業機會？

Well, we've done substantial business over the last 10 years really on screens as they -- and whether it's micro LED, OLED, those complex products to manufacture. So generally, when there is a major capital investment to ramp up production of new screen technologies, and that can be very beneficial for Cognex, we saw that most pronounced in 2017.

好吧，在過去的 10 年裡，我們確實在屏幕上開展了大量業務——無論是微型 LED、OLED，還是那些要製造的複雜產品。所以一般來說，當有大量資本投資來提高新屏幕技術的生產時，這對康耐視來說非常有利，我們在 2017 年看到了最明顯的情況。

As I look at electronics, there are road maps that are under development that we have pretty good insights with our major customers. And then as we move through the year, we see whether these technologies actually scale, right? So any new technology, whether it be that or virtual reality type technology that perhaps may be under development, we can find that can inflect as we move ahead. And I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to, but I would say, certainly, very high definition micro LED and more importantly, OLED type technology, I think, is a very interesting area as it relates to a screen very close to the eye, which is, of course, key for virtual reality, augmented reality type products. And I'm very bullish on that long term, but I wouldn't be banking on necessarily reaching large-scale commercialization this year.

當我看電子產品時，有一些正在開發的路線圖，我們對主要客戶有很好的了解。然後隨著這一年的推移，我們會看到這些技術是否真的可以擴展，對吧？因此，任何新技術，無論是可能正在開發中的還是虛擬現實類型的技術，我們都可以發現它可以隨著我們的前進而變化。我不確定你指的是什麼，但我想說的是，非常高清的微型 LED，更重要的是，OLED 類型的技術，我認為，是一個非常有趣的領域，因為它與屏幕的關係非常密切對眼睛來說，這當然是虛擬現實、增強現實類產品的關鍵。從長遠來看，我非常看好，但我不會指望今年一定會實現大規模商業化。

Our next question comes from the line of Jacob Levinson with Melius Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jacob Levinson 與 Melius Research 的合作。

You talked quite a bit about the opportunity in the EV battery space, and we're certainly seeing some eye-popping numbers, I guess from the spend that's going there. But I think from the outside, always it would to be hard to know what that really means in terms of machine vision content. I think it's quite an automated process, but maybe I'm wrong, maybe just speak to what that -- how the content compares in EV battery versus some of the other big verticals that you still on some?

你談到了電動汽車電池領域的機會，我們肯定會看到一些令人瞠目結舌的數字，我猜是從那裡的支出來看。但我認為從外部來看，總是很難知道這在機器視覺內容方面的真正含義。我認為這是一個相當自動化的過程，但也許我錯了，也許只是說說那是什麼——電動汽車電池的內容與你仍在使用的其他一些大型垂直領域相比如何？

Yes. Thanks for the question. It's an area we've been very focused on currently. And I spend quite a lot of time working and spending time with some of the major line builders and also the two key technology providers in this space. It's -- there's very substantial capital investment going in to build out EV lines planned over the next few years. And it's hard for me to see also how that wouldn't continue to scale for a very long period, just given that appetite that seems to be existing for conversion from internal combustion engine to EV going out into the future.

是的。謝謝你的問題。這是我們目前非常關注的領域。我花了很多時間與一些主要的生產線建設者以及該領域的兩個關鍵技術提供商一起工作和共度時光。它是——有大量的資本投資用於建設未來幾年計劃的電動汽車生產線。而且我也很難看出這種情況不會在很長一段時間內繼續擴大規模，只是考慮到未來似乎存在從內燃機到電動汽車轉換的胃口。

And the commitments that governments and auto OEMs seem to be making to transform their fleets and general population of cars, right? So I see that. And as I visit line builders and I visit end users and I meet with senior executives at large EV battery manufacturers. And that's really where the opportunity primarily is for us. It's in companies that are scaling up production of -- and EV batteries. There are 3 general types. I mean cylindrical, prismatic, some of the ones that you read about. And that there's a lot of investment.

政府和汽車原始設備製造商似乎正在做出改變其車隊和普通汽車數量的承諾，對嗎？所以我明白了。當我拜訪生產線製造商和最終用戶時，我會見了大型 EV 電池製造商的高級管理人員。這確實是機會主要給我們的地方。這是在擴大生產和電動汽車電池的公司中。一般有3種。我的意思是圓柱形，棱柱形，你讀到的一些。而且有很多投資。

If you walk one of these lines, there -- they can be 1,000 feet long. They can have multiple fixtures the products move through and many of those fixtures, perhaps if there are 30 fixtures on the line, more than half would have potential for machine vision content, be it as simple as barcode reading or alignment. But for us, where we see some of the most advantage of our technology is more inspection of the battery material and the finished battery as it moves through production inspection for damage such as scratches and dents that can result in fires, right?

如果你走其中一條線路，它們可能有 1,000 英尺長。他們可以讓產品通過多個固定裝置，其中許多固定裝置，如果生產線上有 30 個固定裝置，那麼一半以上可能具有機器視覺內容的潛力，就像條形碼讀取或對齊一樣簡單。但對我們來說，我們看到我們技術的一些最大優勢是在生產過程中對電池材料和成品電池進行更多檢查，以檢查是否存在可能導致火災的划痕和凹痕等損壞，對嗎？

So I've read an article recently and in talking to Cognoids in China. I think it's an interesting statistic that about 7 cars per day in China, which has, I think, the most EV battery intensive fleet of cars, 7 cars a day catch fire, right? So this is a very serious problem for companies making EV batteries and a real root cause of those problems is dents and scratches and defects in manufacturing.

所以我最近讀了一篇文章，在與中國的 Cognoids 交談時。我認為這是一個有趣的統計數據，中國每天大約有 7 輛汽車著火，我認為中國擁有電動汽車電池密集度最高的車隊，每天有 7 輛汽車著火，對嗎？因此，對於製造 EV 電池的公司來說，這是一個非常嚴重的問題，而這些問題的真正根源是製造過程中的凹痕、划痕和缺陷。

We have 2 pieces of technology that are coming together for us really nicely in that space. One is the computational optics business, lighting business that we acquired late last year that really gives us the best image acquisition of these types of things. It gives us sort of almost 3D light accuracy at very high speed that can look at the depths of a dent or the nature of a scratch and determine whether it's dangerous or not, whether it needs to be rejected or not. And then we have a business we've been developing for about 7 years now, deep learning, intense deep learning vision technology that really allows us to inspect those scratches and dents and determine which ones are problematic and which are not. So that's -- I would say that's an area where we're really excelling. But my expectation and hope is that, that technology leadership we have in the inspection area can lead to lots of other opportunities throughout those 28 or so fixtures in a normal EV battery line.

在那個領域，我們有 2 項技術非常適合我們。一個是計算光學業務，我們去年年底收購的照明業務確實為我們提供了這些類型事物的最佳圖像採集。它以非常高的速度為我們提供了近乎 3D 的光精度，可以查看凹痕的深度或划痕的性質，並確定它是否危險，是否需要拒絕。然後我們有一個我們已經開發了大約 7 年的業務，深度學習，深入的深度學習視覺技術，真正讓我們能夠檢查那些划痕和凹痕，並確定哪些是有問題的，哪些不是。所以那是——我想說這是我們真正擅長的領域。但我的期望和希望是，我們在檢測領域的技術領先地位可以在普通 EV 電池生產線的 28 個左右裝置中帶來許多其他機會。

Okay. That's super helpful. And just on a related topic, I guess, the [tide] have certainly seems to have gone out in a pretty dramatic fashion in the tech startup world. You've done a couple of interesting acquisitions that you mentioned over the last couple of years is -- maybe you can speak to the M&A model and whether we've got some things that may be closer to getting over the finish line today given the environment out there.

好的。這非常有幫助。我想，就一個相關話題而言，科技創業界的[潮流]似乎已經以一種非常戲劇化的方式消失了。你在過去幾年中提到過一些有趣的收購——也許你可以談談併購模式，以及我們是否有一些東西可能更接近今天的終點線，因為外面的環境。

Yes. I think it is one of the most target-rich kind of environment we've been in for M&A for quite a long time. I think we see a lot of companies coming up for sale currently where perhaps their business model is about how quickly they would turn cash positive or how much they would grow haven't really come to pass, right? So we see quite a lot of those. We're pretty selective as we look at them.

是的。我認為這是我們長期以來進行併購的目標最豐富的環境之一。我認為我們目前看到很多公司即將出售，他們的商業模式可能是關於他們將多快將現金轉為正數或他們將增長多少還沒有真正實現，對吧？所以我們看到了很多。當我們看他們時，我們非常有選擇性。

We definitely like to look at excellent technology or excellent engineering teams who would integrate well into our businesses we've done very successfully over longer periods of time. Then there are other types of acquisitions, larger companies perhaps that have had owner founders that are looking to retire changes of ownership, we're also seeing some of those who are coming to market. We're very -- I think we're very good evaluators of those types of businesses and pretty selective.

我們當然希望看到優秀的技術或優秀的工程團隊，他們可以很好地融入我們的業務，我們已經在很長一段時間內做得非常成功。然後還有其他類型的收購，大公司可能擁有希望退休的所有權變更的所有者創始人，我們也看到其中一些正在進入市場。我們非常 - 我認為我們是這些類型的企業的非常好的評估者並且非常有選擇性。

And we're finding ourselves going to many more management presentations and seeing much more activity than we have in the past. I do think probably there's still some expectations about valuation, which may be a little outdated, which may lead to some deals being a little bit more difficult to get done, I think. But it will be interesting to see kind of how that progresses, but it's certainly a very fruitful environment right now, and we're very active.

我們發現自己參加了更多的管理演示並看到了比過去更多的活動。我確實認為可能對估值仍有一些預期，這可能有點過時，我認為這可能導致一些交易更難完成。但是看到它的進展會很有趣，但現在肯定是一個非常富有成果的環境，而且我們非常活躍。

And happy to have a very strong balance sheet at a time when the external new funding environment for nonprofitable start-ups is terrible.

並且很高興在非營利性初創企業的外部新融資環境很糟糕的時候擁有非常強大的資產負債表。

Our next question comes from the line of Josh Pokrzywinski with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Josh Pokrzywinski。

Rob, you mentioned the consumer electronics environment maybe being down a little bit this year. I know that, that typically has a little bit more second half seasonality for you guys. I just want to level set since the next time we all talk is when you'll give 3Q guidance. Respecting you don't really want to talk about the second half and kind of specifics, maybe just a reminder, with all the comps and supply chain interruption last year, maybe where you see kind of the toughest real comp in consumer electronics in the second half, 3Q, 4Q or anything onetime you'd call out?

Rob，你提到今年消費電子環境可能會有所下滑。我知道，對於你們來說，下半年通常會有更多的季節性。我只是想設定水平，因為下次我們都在談論你會給出 3Q 指導的時候。尊重你真的不想談論下半年和一些細節，也許只是一個提醒，去年所有的競爭和供應鏈中斷，也許你在第二個看到消費電子產品中最艱難的真正競爭一半，3Q，4Q 或任何一次你會叫出來？

Yes. I'll sort of give you some big picture perspective on that and then invite Paul to comment. So generally, for us, consumer electronics is a Q2, Q3 phenomenon, right? And so I'd say that's generally been the case in recent years. It was pretty much the case last year. Paul will fill in on the Q3 question because I'm wondering about fire and how it impacted that. But I think we see something similar this year, right? Our consumer electronics business was a little lower than prior year and Q1, right? So there were some things going on last year related to some larger specific projects. And then what can tend to happen as we move through the year, there can be changes. Last year, we -- at this stage, we were thinking it was sort of mid- to high single digits type growth opportunity for us in consumer electronics. So it ended up being perhaps 10 points higher than that once we got through the year, just ballpark numbers. So things can change. But this year, we're expecting Q2, Q3, probably relatively evenly balanced. Q4 will be a wildcard basically, I think, more around how companies are ramping up for their 2024 plans.

是的。我會給你一些大局觀，然後請保羅發表評論。所以一般來說，對我們來說，消費電子是一個Q2、Q3的現象，對吧？所以我想說近年來情況普遍如此。去年幾乎就是這種情況。 Paul 將填寫 Q3 問題，因為我想知道火災及其影響。但我認為我們今年會看到類似的情況，對吧？我們的消費電子業務比去年和第一季度略低，對嗎？所以去年發生了一些與一些更大的具體項目有關的事情。然後隨著我們度過這一年，可能會發生什麼，可能會發生變化。去年，我們 - 在這個階段，我們認為這是我們在消費電子領域的中高個位數增長機會。因此，它最終可能比我們度過這一年時高出 10 分，這只是粗略的數字。所以事情可以改變。但今年，我們預計第二季度、第三季度可能相對均衡。我認為，第四季度基本上將是一個通配符，更多的是圍繞公司如何為他們的 2024 年計劃加速發展。

Thanks, Rob. I think last year, electronics was one of the only areas that really wasn't impacted by the fire. It's a little more software-intensive. The predictability of the build and the lead up, actually, the product gets shipped before the revenue gets recognized. So it was a little more isolated from events that happened as of the second week of June last year.

謝謝，羅布。我想去年，電子產品是唯一真正沒有受到火災影響的領域之一。它的軟件密集度更高一些。構建和引導的可預測性，實際上，產品在收入確認之前就已經發貨了。因此，它與去年 6 月第二週發生的事件更加孤立。

So last year, consumer electronics was pretty balanced Q2 versus Q3, Josh. And this year, we're expecting the same. 2021 and 2020 were a little more Q3 weighted. 2020 was very specific. COVID really delayed the ramp-up of line for quite some period of time and so on. So we are expecting things to be a little more balanced in Q2 and Q3, and that's reflective of our guide.

所以去年，消費電子產品在第二季度與第三季度相當平衡，Josh。而今年，我們期待著同樣的結果。 2021 年和 2020 年第三季度的權重更高一些。 2020 年非常具體。 COVID 確實延遲了生產線的啟動相當長一段時間等等。因此，我們預計第二季度和第三季度的情況會更加平衡，這反映了我們的指南。

The only call out I'll make is there's a lot of large project timing here that can be quite lumpy. So we're doing our best at any time to predict that, but there are always going to be slight shifts depending on delays in supply, a COVID outbreak that might shut down a factory for a week or 2 and so on. So we're doing our best. But right now, that's what we're seeing kind of pretty balanced between Q2 and Q3.

我唯一要說的是這裡有很多大型項目的時間安排可能非常不穩定。因此，我們隨時都在盡最大努力進行預測，但總會有輕微的變化，具體取決於供應延遲、COVID 爆發可能導致工廠關閉一兩周等。所以我們正在盡力而為。但現在，這就是我們在第二季度和第三季度之間看到的相當平衡的情況。

Got it. Super helpful. I appreciate that color there. And then just on the logistics market. I apologize, I missed the start of the call, lots going on this morning. But any additional comment or I guess rate of change that you would point out, maybe just kind of separate from 2Q specifically more in aggregate, I guess. In March, we saw some of the big integrators seeing another step down in orders, some industrial or I guess, warehouse REITs see lower utilization. Is that something you guys are seeing as well? Or is it just a little too early to calibrate that yet?

知道了。超級有幫助。我很欣賞那裡的那種顏色。然後就在物流市場上。抱歉，我錯過了電話的開始，今天早上發生了很多事情。但我想，任何額外的評論或我猜你會指出的變化率，可能只是與 2Q 不同，特別是總體上更多。 3 月，我們看到一些大型集成商的訂單再次減少，一些工業或我猜，倉庫 REITs 的利用率較低。你們也看到了嗎？還是現在校準它還為時過早？

Yes, I don't think I see a real change compared to what I saw at the last earnings call on this. We see kind of the large e-commerce type businesses have really pared that spending. And I think all of us are kind of trying to understand when that comes back. I don't think there's much real clarity on that at the moment. And I think smaller customers continue to invest and build out, although, as I mentioned at the start of the call, there's perhaps additional caution there too where companies are just reading the macro environment and perhaps some of the consumer spending sentiment that might impact their businesses. So I think that's what I see overall. I think it's important to know that some of the larger integrators perhaps the one that talked more publicly. These can be large businesses that are implementing projects over a very long period of time. Some of them have had very high levels of inventory that they're really still working through. And when they purchase from us, some of that may take time for them to absorb and fulfill. So I would kind of point to that as a potential dynamic.

是的，與我在上次財報電話會議上看到的相比，我認為我沒有看到真正的變化。我們看到大型電子商務類型的企業確實削減了支出。而且我認為我們所有人都在努力了解它何時會回來。我認為目前還沒有真正明確這一點。而且我認為較小的客戶繼續投資和建設，儘管正如我在電話會議開始時提到的那樣，在公司剛剛閱讀宏觀環境以及可能影響他們的一些消費者支出情緒的情況下，可能還有額外的謹慎企業。所以我認為這就是我所看到的總體情況。我認為重要的是要知道一些較大的集成商可能是那些更公開談論的集成商。這些可以是在很長一段時間內實施項目的大型企業。他們中的一些人擁有非常高的庫存水平，他們實際上仍在努力解決這些問題。當他們從我們這裡購買時，其中一些可能需要時間來吸收和實現。所以我會指出這是一種潛在的動力。

And our next question comes from the line of Jim Ricchiuti of Needham & Company.

我們的下一個問題來自 Needham & Company 的 Jim Ricchiuti。

This is actually Chris Grenga on for Jim. You had mentioned that you're beginning to see some indications that cleantech could be ramping. What applications is Cognex' portfolio best suited for differentiated within cleantech? And how are you thinking about the potential content -- the potential Cognex content in one of these typical cleantech fabs for lack of a better word?

這實際上是 Jim 的 Chris Grenga。您曾提到您開始看到一些跡象表明清潔技術可能正在興起。康耐視的哪些應用最適合在清潔技術中脫穎而出？您如何看待潛在內容——這些典型的清潔技術工廠之一的潛在康耐視內容，因為缺乏更好的詞？

Yes. I think when we think of cleantech, we think of EV battery. It's just the big play for us, right? And we've talked a bit about that is certainly building out large lines to manufacture EV batteries, we see as going to be perhaps the big driver of growth. That said, certainly, we do see more spending and investment and levels of interest in the solar market currently in the United States, not just panels, but things like inverters. For instance, certainly our -- one can see that the level of investment and plans ramping there. So I think there are sort of secondary benefits but nowhere on the order of EV batteries, which I think will be the big cleantech mover for Cognex with my expectation over a long period.

是的。我想當我們想到清潔技術時，我們就會想到電動汽車電池。這對我們來說只是一場大戲，對吧？我們已經談過一些關於建立大型生產線來製造 EV 電池的問題，我們認為這可能是增長的主要驅動力。也就是說，當然，我們確實看到了美國目前對太陽能市場的更多支出和投資以及興趣水平，不僅僅是面板，還有逆變器之類的東西。例如，當然，我們可以看到那裡的投資水平和計劃在增加。所以我認為有一些次要好處，但在電動汽車電池的訂單上無處可去，我認為這將是康耐視的一大清潔技術推動者，我預計在很長一段時間內。

Got it. And Europe held up well. Could you elaborate a little bit more on what you're seeing there and discuss the current competitive landscape?

知道了。歐洲表現良好。您能否詳細說明您在那裡看到的內容並討論當前的競爭格局？

Yes. So Europe performed better than the Americas and Asia in Q1 but still below kind of the target growth rate. I'd say that any -- the softness we saw in Europe related quite a lot to large customers in logistics that buy products from us. So I think most of us on the call understand that Cognex is -- has a larger percentage of its business in the Americas and logistics than it does outside of the Americas. So Europe was less impacted by that. Automotive in Europe grew year-on-year over what was a relatively tepid quarter a year ago. And the PMI doesn't look that strong in Europe. So it performed better, but I wouldn't say it performed well.

是的。因此，歐洲在第一季度的表現好於美洲和亞洲，但仍低於目標增長率。我想說的是，我們在歐洲看到的疲軟與從我們這裡購買產品的物流大客戶有很大關係。因此，我認為我們大多數人都明白康耐視在美洲和物流方面的業務比在美洲以外的業務所佔的比例更大。因此，歐洲受此影響較小。與一年前相對不溫不火的季度相比，歐洲汽車業同比增長。歐洲的採購經理人指數看起來並不那麼強勁。所以它表現得更好，但我不會說它表現得很好。

And our next question comes from the line of Rob Mason with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 Rob Mason 與 Baird 的對話。

It's quite clear that your large customers put on the brakes abruptly last year, e-commerce customers and logistics. I'm just curious, as we now stand a year from that, as they reached a base level of spending that you can tell a floor, so to speak.

很明顯，去年你的大客戶突然踩剎車，電商客戶和物流。我只是很好奇，因為我們距離那一年還有一年的時間，因為他們達到了一個基本的支出水平，可以這麼說。

Rob, it's a good question, and we're talking about a few customers there. I would say broadly, I'm hopeful that the answer is yes to that question, but I can't say definitively, it is. And as I look at our funnel and business that we're doing with some of these large customers, this a good base of kind of productivity and improvement related projects that I think will certainly should keep us moving along at the level we are. And then I think when they start to lean into more investment and then there are more distribution centers, big new investments in automation coming, which I see can potentially come back next year, then I think we're really going to see an inflection. So that would be my take on it.

Rob，這是一個很好的問題，我們正在談論那裡的一些客戶。我會廣泛地說，我希望這個問題的答案是肯定的，但我不能肯定地說，它是。當我審視我們與這些大客戶中的一些客戶開展的渠道和業務時，我認為這是生產力和改進相關項目的良好基礎，我認為這肯定會讓我們保持在目前的水平。然後我認為，當他們開始傾向於更多的投資，然後有更多的配送中心，對自動化的新大投資即將到來，我認為明年可能會回來，然後我認為我們真的會看到一個拐點。這就是我的看法。

Yes. And certainly, Rob, from a sort of full year basis, 2022 versus 2023 in logistics. Just given kind of what we've already shared about Q1, right? We were down about $80 million in revenue for the whole business. Our few largest e-commerce and omnichannel customers were responsible for more than half of that decline in the quarter. I would say on a full year basis, logistics this year versus logistics last year, it's very hard to model in growth right now with just what we've already done in Q1. But I think on a quarter-to-quarter basis now that we're past that tough compare and we've had a few quarters, things are looking a little more steady.

是的。當然，Rob，從某種全年的角度來看，2022 年與 2023 年在物流方面。只是給出了我們已經分享的關於 Q1 的內容，對吧？我們整個業務的收入減少了大約 8000 萬美元。我們少數幾個最大的電子商務和全渠道客戶對本季度下降的一半以上負責。我會說，從全年來看，今年的物流與去年的物流相比，現在很難用我們在第一季度所做的事情來模擬增長。但我認為，現在我們已經過去了那個艱難的比較，而且我們已經有幾個季度了，從一個季度到一個季度的基礎上，事情看起來更穩定了。

Yes. And to pile on to that, I think when I was answering you, I was thinking about kind of orders, and I was thinking about sales funnel and projects, right? And obviously, there can be a bit of a tail to revenue where you see -- when you see through our financial results, the business turning down. But I think there's cause for hope that it's bottomed and will be coming back over many quarters.

是的。更重要的是，我想當我回答你的時候，我在考慮訂單，我在考慮銷售渠道和項目，對吧？很明顯，當你看到我們的財務業績時，你看到的收入可能會有一點尾巴，業務下滑。但我認為有理由希望它已經觸底並將在多個季度回歸。

Sure, sure. Just as a follow-up. Rob, in your earlier commentary, you talked about EV. And I thought you said you still or you expected strong growth this year. I just wanted to clarify that, did I hear that correctly? And if that's the case, is that any change in the view that you may have had from the discussion -- we had 3 months to go on the call, and you talked about just kind of the regional diversification efforts were slowing some of the deployments. If anything has changed there and strong year-over-year growth this year?

一定一定。就像後續行動一樣。 Rob，在你之前的評論中，你談到了 EV。我以為你說你仍然或你預計今年會強勁增長。我只是想澄清一下，我沒聽錯嗎？如果是這樣的話，您從討論中獲得的觀點是否有任何變化——我們有 3 個月的時間進行通話，而您談到的只是某種區域多元化努力正在減緩一些部署.如果那裡有任何變化並且今年同比增長強勁？

Yes, Rob. So yes, definitely, we see EV as a strong source of growth for Cognex this year and perhaps for many years to come, right? And we -- yes, so we're very, very positive about that. Certainly, there's large investments, some of the IRA type investments I referred to in my prepared remarks, are good examples of that. And I think we do see some of that spend getting pivoted towards America, right? And that has caused some projects to get delayed, right, which we've referenced in previous conference calls, right, but that will be happening.

是的，羅伯。所以，是的，毫無疑問，我們認為 EV 是康耐視今年乃至未來許多年的強勁增長來源，對吧？我們 - 是的，所以我們對此非常非常積極。當然，有大量投資，我在準備好的發言中提到的一些 IRA 類型的投資就是很好的例子。而且我認為我們確實看到其中一些支出轉向了美國，對吧？這導致一些項目被推遲，對，我們在之前的電話會議中已經提到過，對，但這種情況將會發生。

And as I think of that EV market, I think there are perhaps 10 major companies, technology providers and investors in this space or so. So that means the business can be a little lumpy, right? We -- the business was not -- is growing as quickly as perhaps we would have expected on a revenue basis in Q1, mostly because of prior year's business we've seen with some large China suppliers. But all of those customers, I'm thinking of are -- of those big 10 companies are Cognex customers evaluating our technology, have ambitious rollout schedules. And certainly, we see as a market for great growth. But I think we can expect some variable growth within quarters based on these projects getting deployed.

當我想到電動汽車市場時，我認為這個領域大約有 10 家主要公司、技術提供商和投資者。所以這意味著業務可能有點不穩定，對吧？我們 - 業務不是 - 增長速度可能與我們在第一季度的收入基礎上預期的一樣快，這主要是因為我們看到一些大型中國供應商去年的業務。但我想到的所有這些客戶都是 - 在那些 10 大公司中，康耐視的客戶正在評估我們的技術，他們都有雄心勃勃的推出時間表。當然，我們認為這是一個巨大增長的市場。但我認為，根據這些項目的部署，我們可以預期季度內會有一些可變增長。

Our next question comes from the line of Jairam Nathan with Daiwa Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自大和資本市場的 Jairam Nathan。

Just -- I wanted to focus a little on the ex-China numbers that were down and I kind of -- have you talked about CE and maybe to the earlier question, EV batteries -- EV deductions and with China improving, do you see some sequential growth there going forward?

只是——我想稍微關註一下下降的中國以外的數字，我有點——你有沒有談到 CE，也許還有之前的問題，EV 電池——EV 扣除和中國的改善，你看到了嗎未來會有一些連續增長嗎？

Yes. Yes, I'll start off and Paul might want to come in also. So yes, we saw a relatively slow start to the year in China prior to Chinese New Year, slower than one would normally expect. I think that was probably a result of COVID and the difficult time coming in through the start of the year. But then after Chinese New Year, we did see some positive improvement in the business, perhaps at or beyond our expectations. So we're seeing some better outlook there. And then I think it's worth pointing out that our business in China is broad, but it does have a significant consumer electronics component to it. So certainly, that normally, and I would expect this year also should see some nice sequential growth for us as we move into Q2 and then with Q3 also being positive for us.

是的。是的，我先開始，Paul 可能也想進來。所以是的，我們看到中國農曆新年前一年的開局相對緩慢，比人們通常預期的要慢。我認為這可能是 COVID 和年初進入的困難時期的結果。但在春節過後，我們確實看到了業務的一些積極改善，也許達到或超出了我們的預期。所以我們在那裡看到了更好的前景。然後我認為值得指出的是，我們在中國的業務範圍很廣，但它確實有一個重要的消費電子組件。所以當然，通常情況下，我預計今年我們也應該看到一些不錯的連續增長，因為我們進入第二季度，然後第三季度也對我們有利。

Yes. I would just call out, I think we've had sort of our sequential increase from Q1 to Q2 in revenue. Two factors we've called out. One is the seasonal ramp-up of our consumer electronics business. And that's by far the bigger factor. Now the way we report our geographies, a lot of that is going to play out in China next year -- this quarter, Q2. And then the second is just general ramp-up and improvement in business conditions in China from Q1 to Q2. So both of those signs point to a strong China in Q2. But of the factors, we really I think the consumer electronics is the bigger driver of the sequential ramp-up than kind of the improvement in broader factory automation business right now.

是的。我只想說，我認為我們的收入從第一季度到第二季度有所連續增長。我們提到了兩個因素。一是我們消費電子業務的季節性增長。這是迄今為止更大的因素。現在我們報告我們的地域的方式，其中很多將在明年在中國發揮作用 - 本季度，第二季度。其次是從第一季度到第二季度，中國商業環境的普遍增長和改善。因此，這兩個跡像都表明中國在第二季度表現強勁。但在這些因素中，我們真的認為消費電子產品是連續增長的更大驅動力，而不是目前更廣泛的工廠自動化業務的改善。

Okay. And I just had a longer-term question on your -- I think, your operating margin target of 30%. So given the emerging customer initiative, do you do you see kind of underperforming the target in the near term? Of course, the revenues are having an impact, but how should we kind of look at that return to 20% operating margin? Could it take longer?

好的。我剛剛有一個關於你的長期問題——我認為，你的營業利潤率目標是 30%。因此，鑑於新興客戶計劃，您是否認為短期內表現不佳？當然，收入產生了影響，但我們應該如何看待 20% 的營業利潤率？能不能再長點？

Right. So yes, so -- I think you said at the beginning 20% or 30%, 30% is our operating margin target and that we're very confident in that over the longer term, right? I think as you think about our operating margins this year, I think much more of it's going to be driven by volume, really. I think we're -- as we said, we're through the challenge we had around broker buys, as that goes away. So that's going -- should help. But I think if we can't get the sort of volume that -- due to the slower market conditions, that's likely (inaudible) in our operating margins. And certainly, our emerging customer investment with full size for you, I think between $25 million and $30 million, will weigh on our operating margins.

正確的。所以是的，所以 - 我想你一開始就說過 20% 或 30%，30% 是我們的營業利潤率目標，從長遠來看我們對此非常有信心，對吧？我認為，當你考慮我們今年的營業利潤率時，我認為更多的將是由數量驅動的，真的。我認為我們 - 正如我們所說的那樣，隨著經紀人購買的消失，我們已經度過了我們所面臨的挑戰。所以這就是 - 應該有所幫助。但我認為，如果我們無法獲得那種數量——由於市場環境放緩，我們的營業利潤率可能（聽不清）。當然，我們為您提供的全額新興客戶投資，我認為在 2500 萬到 3000 萬美元之間，將影響我們的營業利潤率。

But I think as we -- so this year, there are challenges that I think we all understand as we move into next year, I think that the emerging customer segment should start to contribute and we'll see some good performance there. We expect gross margins in that business to be strong, similar to the current profile of our business. And then we'll be investing in sales heads to reach more and more customers. And so that will weigh potentially on our operating margin. But I still feel very positive about getting it up to 30% as we have, particularly if we see our overall business bounce back.

但我認為，正如我們 - 所以今年，我認為隨著我們進入明年，我們都會遇到挑戰，我認為新興客戶群應該開始做出貢獻，我們會在那裡看到一些好的表現。我們預計該業務的毛利率會很高，類似於我們目前的業務狀況。然後我們將投資於銷售主管，以吸引越來越多的客戶。因此，這可能會影響我們的營業利潤率。但我仍然對像我們一樣將其提高到 30% 感到非常樂觀，特別是如果我們看到我們的整體業務反彈的話。

Yes. I think if we look at last year, Jairam, we delivered GAAP operating income of about 24.5% on a full year basis. And obviously, that was with about $1 billion of revenue. And I think about the levers there that would have taken us to 30% or very close. Our gross margin was about 300 basis points below our midterm -- midyear target, right, rounded to 72% versus a mid-70% target. And then we had about a $20 million loss from the fire. So I think of that as about a 2% drag on operating income. I think if we look at this year, we're not going to -- we're expecting the gross margins to improve as we've communicated in our Q2. But on a full year basis, we'll still obviously have the Q1 there.

是的。我想如果我們看看去年，Jairam，我們全年的 GAAP 營業收入約為 24.5%。顯然，這是大約 10 億美元的收入。我想到了那些可以使我們達到 30% 或非常接近的槓桿。我們的毛利率比我們的中期目標低約 300 個基點 - 年中目標，正確，四捨五入至 72%，而中期目標為 70%。然後我們因火災損失了大約 2000 萬美元。所以我認為這對營業收入造成了大約 2% 的拖累。我認為，如果我們看一下今年，我們不會——我們預計毛利率會提高，正如我們在第二季度所傳達的那樣。但在全年的基礎上，我們顯然仍然會有第一季度。

We've sized the emerging customers' investment, which, again, we're not seeing any payback this year. So that's just a pure investment this year. And then the rest is really a function of how our revenue performs relative to our sort of fixed cost. But overall, it's not a difficult path with a bit more revenue growth and emerging customers starting to become an investment that's paying off versus a pure investment to -- and gross margin problems behind us to be back at our target.

我們已經確定了新興客戶的投資規模，今年我們也沒有看到任何回報。所以這只是今年的純投資。然後剩下的實際上是我們的收入相對於我們的固定成本如何表現的函數。但總的來說，這並不是一條艱難的道路，收入增長更多，新興客戶開始成為一項有回報的投資，而不是純粹的投資——我們背後的毛利率問題又回到了我們的目標。

Okay. And just quickly, which region do you think you would start seeing this -- the benefit from the emerging customer first initially? Or is that difficult to say?

好的。很快，您認為您會在哪個地區開始看到這一點——首先從新興客戶那裡獲益？或者這很難說嗎？

We're thinking of it in global terms. And we don't really want to disclose too much at this point for competitive reasons.

我們正在從全球角度考慮它。出於競爭原因，我們現在真的不想透露太多。

Our next question comes from the line of Keith Housum with Northcoast Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Northcoast Research 的 Keith Housum。

I appreciate the opportunity here. In terms of the demand environment that you're seeing out there, we're hearing a lot of pauses and delays. But can you help me understand when is the decision made to buy a Cognex product versus like when the CapEx spending happens? Is there a long lead time between the 2 events?

我很感激這裡的機會。就您在那裡看到的需求環境而言，我們聽到了很多停頓和延遲。但是你能幫我理解什麼時候做出購買康耐視產品的決定，而不是什麼時候發生資本支出嗎？兩次活動之間是否有很長的準備時間？

So I think there are different pieces of our business, right? Probably let's size at roughly 2/3 is a relatively short-cycle business. So customers are identifying and executing products and placing orders within the 60-day window or so. And it's worth pointing out that we generally supply very quickly. And we have -- with the distributors we have or the end users don't hold inventory of products.

所以我認為我們的業務有不同的部分，對嗎？大概let's size在2/3左右是比較短週期的業務。因此，客戶會在 60 天左右的時間窗口內識別和執行產品並下訂單。值得指出的是，我們通常供應速度非常快。我們有 - 我們擁有的分銷商或最終用戶不持有產品庫存。

So I think we -- you're going to see our business inflect more quickly in that kind of environment. Then we have -- the rest of our business might be much larger customer related, and we spent a lot of time talking about that in e-commerce, and there are some customers also in consumer electronics, big smartphone businesses. And to some degree, some of these EV battery businesses we're talking they have a longer time frame. So they may be implementing an automation project that's 18 months in duration. We would be in discussions with them and they may be placing orders then for -- to turn into revenue over a longer period, possibly 6 months in nature, right, as they commission bring up their lines and we recognize revenue. But I'd say 2/3 short cycle, 1/3 kind of longer cycle in a normalized business for Cognex over the last few years or so.

所以我認為我們 - 你會看到我們的業務在那種環境中變化得更快。然後我們 - 我們的其他業務可能與更大的客戶相關，我們花了很多時間在電子商務中談論這一點，並且在消費電子產品，大型智能手機業務中也有一些客戶。在某種程度上，我們正在談論的這些 EV 電池業務中的一些業務具有更長的時間框架。因此，他們可能正在實施一個持續 18 個月的自動化項目。我們將與他們進行討論，然後他們可能會下訂單 - 以便在更長的時間內（可能是 6 個月）轉化為收入，對，因為他們佣金提高了他們的生產線並且我們確認了收入。但我會說 2/3 的短週期，在過去幾年左右的康耐視正常化業務中，1/3 的周期更長。

Okay. That's helpful. And as a follow-up, we're hearing also obviously delays in longer sales cycle in the decision-making process. But how is the pipeline, I guess, before you get that process? Is the pipeline growing as you've seen more these deals kind of being delayed?

好的。這很有幫助。作為後續行動，我們還聽到決策過程中較長銷售週期的明顯延遲。但是，我想，在你得到那個過程之前，管道怎麼樣？隨著你看到更多這些交易被推遲，管道是否在增長？

Yes. We've implemented Salesforce.com over the last few years, and we really -- we're very pleased with the progress we're making on kind of our CRM and understanding of our business. And we are -- we see large opportunities in a big funnel, but I think the expectation is that, that's going to shift to the right as projects get delayed and customers -- although there's lots of things they want to do with Cognex vision, we all know that, and the payback can be very good. Definitely, we see that tightening going on. I've been to a few customers over the last few weeks, are definitely seen that from the automation engineers who are struggling to get projects approved that have great paybacks. So lots of opportunity, lots of caution is how I would describe it.

是的。我們在過去幾年實施了 Salesforce.com，我們真的很高興我們在 CRM 方面取得的進展以及對我們業務的理解。我們是——我們在一個大漏斗中看到了巨大的機會，但我認為隨著項目和客戶的延遲，這將向右轉移——儘管他們想用康耐視視覺做很多事情，我們都知道，回報會非常好。當然，我們看到收緊正在發生。在過去的幾周里，我拜訪了一些客戶，從自動化工程師那裡可以肯定地看到，他們正在努力讓項目獲得批准，但回報豐厚。如此多的機會，我會如何描述它的謹慎。

And we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I'll now turn the call back over to Rob Willett for closing remarks.

我們已經結束了問答環節。我現在將電話轉回給 Rob Willett 以作結束語。

Well, thank you for joining us this morning. We look forward to speaking with you again on next quarter's call, and may the force be with you.

好吧，謝謝你今天早上加入我們。我們期待在下個季度的電話會議上再次與您交談，願這股力量與您同在。

And this concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束，此時你們可以掛斷電話。感謝您的參與。